Growing Up with Termites, Mice, Geckos

I forgot to mention termites were one of our playthings in our first home--the ones my Dad hoped wouldn't bring the house down on our heads (Nov. 7 post), the way they were eating up the woodwork. I vaguely remember--these are preschool days--we'd catch the termites and pluck off their wings.

There had to be mice in the house, because I remember Daddy put mousetraps around the house--not the kind that slammed shut and killed the mice instantly, but cages whose doors dropped shut when a mouse went inside and pulled on the bait. The caged rats were then drowned in barrels of water in the backyard. I always thought they were rather cute, really, with their clear, round eyes. Maybe Mommy kept us from witnessing the rodent executions, because the sight of mice never evokes any feelings of repulsion, fear, or even guilt (from having done away with so many).

One other creature others would think me batty for thinking they were cute: geckos! They were free to crawl up and down our house walls--I'm talking about the inside of the house, not the outside--and eat all the mosquitos their hearts desired. Anything that helps lessen the mosquito population is MY FRIEND--so geckos were my friends! The greenish outdoors lizards, I always felt, were more pointy, ugly things; but the gray-brown indoors geckos, to me, seemed more round, soft,..even cute.